recovered her balance:

"So sorry I am late. My carriage was unfortunately delayed."

The excuse, I gathered, was accepted, for with a gracious smile and
a vigorous bow, by help of which every hairpin made distinct further
advance towards freedom, she turned, and with much dignity and head
over the right shoulder took a short walk to the left. At the end of six
short steps she stopped and began kicking. For what reason, I, at first,
could not comprehend. It dawned upon me after awhile that her object
was the adjustment of her train. Finding the manoeuvre too difficult of
accomplishment by feet alone, she stooped, and, taking the stuff up in
her hands, threw it behind her. Then, facing north, she retraced
her steps to the glass, talking to herself, as she walked, in the
high-pitched drawl, distinctive, as my stage knowledge told me, of
aristocratic society.

"Oh, do you think so--really? Ah, yes; you say that. Certainly not! I
shouldn't think of it." There followed what I am inclined to believe was
intended for a laugh, musical but tantalising. If so, want of practice
marred the effort. The performance failed to satisfy even herself. She
tried again; it was still only a giggle.

Before the glass she paused, and with a haughty inclination of her head
succeeded for the third time in displacing the intoxicated feather.

"Oh, bother the silly thing!" she said in a voice so natural as to be,
by contrast with her previous tone, quite startling.

She fixed it again with difficulty, muttering something inarticulate.
Then, her left hand resting on an imaginary coat-sleeve, her right
holding her skirt sufficiently high to enable her to move, she commenced
to majestically gyrate.

Whether, hampered as she was by excess of skirt, handicapped by the
natural clumsiness of her age, catastrophe in any case would not sooner
or later have overtaken her, I have my doubts. I have since learnt her
own view to be that but for catching sight, in turning, of my face,
staring at her through the bars of the easel, all would have gone well
and gracefully. Avoiding controversy on this point, the facts to be
recorded are, that, seeing me, she uttered a sudden exclamation of
surprise, dropped her skirt, trod on her train, felt her hair coming
down, tried to do two things at once, and sat upon the floor. I ran to
her assistance. With flaming face and flashing eyes she sprang to her
feet. There was a sound as of the rushing down of avalanches. T